


I Don't Need You

by TrashyArcticBoi



Category: Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Gay ships, I'm sorry but its 2am and I needed to make angst, M/M, Xisuma is now Grian's dad, mad mumbo, sad grian
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:47:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23731810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrashyArcticBoi/pseuds/TrashyArcticBoi
Summary: Mumbo is too focused on his work to care about what he's just done to Grian. Until he can snap out of it, he won't understand the storm that's just about to hit him.
Relationships: Evil Xisuma & NPC Grian, Oliver Brotherhood & Charles | Grian
Comments: 22
Kudos: 260





	1. Hurt

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first HermitCraft fanfiction and first fanfiction I've posted in a long while. I hope you enjoy even though angst! Enjoy!

It was a calm and quiet day. Calmer than usual but nice. Xisuma sat at his desk, working on paperwork for the idol Hermits, paying bills and any damages that had been done, since there were quite a few. It took him a minute to notice the other sad Hermit who had just entered the room. He heard a flap of wings and a soft pull on his feathers for him to understand which Hermit had entered into his office. He sighed, placed his pen down and turned to the Hermit but his eyes widened when he saw him. 

“Grian? Honey, what’s wrong?” Xisuma asked, his father-like instincts taking over. Grian was wearing a large blue hoodie, his parrot wings were large on his back and he was crying. The thing is, Grian has small wings but when he’s upset or angry they’ll grow into large ones.

Grian squeaked sadly in response. Xisuma frowned deeply, he leaned down to pick the smaller Hermit up but Grian quickly flew into his arms and hugged him. X hugged back, rubbing the smaller’s back as he cried. 

“Would you like to talk about it?” X asked. Grian shook his head but leaned back, he did a writing motion with his hand, as if asking if he could write instead. X nodded and turned them towards his desk. He reached down to one of his desk drawers, pulled it open and grabbed a notepad. He sat it on the table and gave Grian his pen. 

Grian was mute, he couldn’t speak because he didn’t have the vocal cords to. He was able to communicate like a bird though, twisting his throat to help him make squeaking sounds but not everyone understood bird so he’d have to write or sign when he was saying.

Grian began to write, his handwriting a little shaky because of his shaking body. 

_“I-I woke up this morning. Like every other morning. I wanted to go see Mumbo and watch what he was working on. Stress was up and told me that he was in the basement working on something. I went down and saw him but he was all angry and upset. I-I thou-thought that maybe he needed some cheering up or needed someone to help him. So I tried cheering him up by fooling around a bit and making jokes….I ended up breaking his redstone machine that he was working on. Apparently it was-it was really important for his work and he’d spent 5 days straight on it with small naps but no actual sleep, which I didn’t know. I tried fixing it but...he-he-Mumbo started yelling at me and I just…_ ” Grian started sobbing, tears rushed down his face like an over flown waterfall. His handwriting became jagged as the pen in his hands slipped off the paper. He made a few trembling squeaking sounds while Xisuma held him close.

“So you fell into a panic attack? He said something that triggered a flashback to your old life. When your family…” X stopped himself, knowing that too much mention of Grian’s family would just trigger another attack. Grian nodded in response. He squeaked a few more times before going silent and just crying into his leader’s shoulder. 

“So you tried to scream, failed to, and ran… You went to your room. For how long?” X asked. Grian shakily held up four fingers. 

“Four hours?” X asked for confirmation. Grian nodded. X hummed. He rubbed his hands in a soothing manor up and down Grian’s back, between the younger’s wings. 

“I’m sorry that Mumbo did that. I’ll make sure to speak with him later.” X said. Grian squeaked. 

“Of course you can stay here, Gri. Would you like to sit with me and help me with work?” X asked. Grian nodded. 

“Alright then.” X carefully grabbed the pen from Grian’s shaking hand. He moved the open notebook to the side a bit and started back up on his work. One of his wings moved behind Grian while he hugged him with one arm. Grian leaned against his leader, getting comfortable as he watched the older work. As Xisuma worked, Grian began to slowly fall asleep. He tried to keep his eyes open to watch but his eyelids felt like weights. Sooner than later Grian was asleep on Xisuma’s lap. His wings had returned to their small, normal size and curled up around him. X let him cuddle close and fall into a deep sleep. To be honest, X enjoyed this. 

He was like the dad of the house, he watched over everyone and made sure that they were safe and of course, like every dad, he had a favorite but never admitted it. Who was his favorite Hermit? It was Grian, but also Grian was everyone’s favorite Hermit so it didn’t come as a big surprise. Grian was the baby of the Hermit family and everyone wanted to protect him. It was the reason why he wasn’t allowed out of the house. Everyone was too afraid that he might end up getting hurt in some way. But Grian being cute wasn’t Xisuma’s reason for why he was his favorite. It was because Grian always came to him for help. Whenever one of the other Hermits came to him for help it was always about some kind of complicated project or for help to prank someone. That was it. But Grian, Grian always came to him for help when it came to personal things like emotional help, learning to fly, cooking, help when it came to relationship advice, basically anything. Xisuma loved that and because of it all, the two had grown a sort of father and son bond. 

X looked down at Grian who was fast asleep and smiled at him. Xisuma thought that part of the reason the young boy came to him was because of his wings. X was an archangel, he had four large wings, two that would hide with the other wings to appear that he only had two, had a halo and two pairs of eyes above and below his normal eyes that would only open when he used any sort of magic, which he hardly knows any magic except for summoning god’s sword and shooting sun beams which both took a lot of energy out of him. He wasn’t the only one with wings in the house. There was Tango with his demon wings, Wels with his black feathered wings and Iskall who had his weird slime wings. 

All in all, Xisuma wasn’t fully sure why Grian trusted him the most and came to him first for any sort of help but he liked it. He loved the bond that they shared. It was something special that he hoped to never have to let go of anytime in the future.

A knock at the door interrupted X’s thoughts. He looked up at the glass window in front of him, holding Grian close in a protective side hold and not turning towards the now opening door. 

“X-Xisuma?” A voice asked. It sounded nervous, scared even. It worried X a bit but he knew who it was and probably why they were here. 

“Iskall? What is it that you need?” He asked. Iskall carefully closed the door behind him. He hugged himself while he looked at the floor. 

“G-Grian’s missing.” Iskall whispered. Xisuma sighed and turned in his chair, showing off the missing person who was still asleep in his lap. 

“I can assure you that he’s not missing.” X assured. Iskall looked up in confusion but gave a large sigh of relief when he saw Grian. He walked over to the two, not daring to touch them but watched Grian. 

“We’ve been looking for him for over three hours.” Iskall said. X hummed. 

“Yes, I understand the situation going on. Grian will rest here with me until he’s awake and calm. On the other hand, update me on Mumbo.” Iskall bit his lip and started rubbing the back of his neck. X noticed the nervous vibe the other man gave off and asked,

“Is there something wrong with Mumbo?” Iskall looked the archangel in the eye with a very worried look.

“Well, for starters, whatever he’s been working on has gotten his mind trapped inside it. Not literally but when Tango, Stress, Scar and I saw Grian run past us in terrified tears from the basement, we went to go see what was going on and saw just how terrible Mumbo looked. We asked him what went on, he told us but with some harsh comments about...well, hate towards Grian. We were shocked and asked him a few things and he just told us that his life depended on the machine he was making and that he needed to get it done or the king was going to take his head.” Iskall explained. X frowned his brows. 

“We all know that the king would never do such a thing to anyone.” X said. Iskall put his hands on his hips. 

“That’s what we said but he just fired back at us with rants about how we were wrong and a whole bunch of other things. Last I checked, he’s still in the basement but Scar is looking after him. Me and the others went on a search for Grian and got worried that we couldn’t find him anywhere. I’m just glad that he’s with you.” Iskall looked down at Grian, Xisuma doing the same. 

“I’ll make sure to have a talk with him later. For now, tell the others that Grian is ok and that I’ve got him. If Mumbo does end up snapping out of it, I don’t want him anywhere near Grian until I say so. Is that good?” X asked. Iskall nodded. 

“We’ll make sure of it.” Iskall reassured. The two nodded at each other and the slime hybrid, Iskall, left the room. Xisuma turned back towards his desk. Oh what a long _**talk** _he and Mumbo would be having. A long one indeed. No one was allowed to hurt his friend who was like a son to him. Even if it was family there was no excuses. No one hurts Grian, and he means **nobody**.


	2. Does He...?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First of all, holy sh*t. I'm shocked that you all actually like this!? But uh... thank you all so much. Second, since I wrote the first chapter at 2am, and since I have no idea about how my thought process works at 2am, I kinda got stuck with this chapter. But here ya go! Hope you enjoy!

It was 11pm when the other Hermits found out about the entire situation, and by that point Mr. Jumbo had been scolded harshly by every Hermit in the Hermit household....... That is… except for Grian and Xisuma. Xisuma was finishing up paperwork and had Iskall put Grian to bed but from earlier to now, Mumbo had yet to snap out of his weird faze. Since Mumbo was still at work on his machine, still in his redstone working faze, the Hermits were furious and greatly upset that their friend still hadn’t come to his senses about the whole Grian situation. 

“Maybe if I cut his hands off he’ll come to his senses.” Doc suggested as False fixed the red patterned bow on his waistline. 

“We’re not going to do that, Doc. The last thing we need is more problems occuring.” Iskall said. He was fixing up his dance vest that he was wearing. Most of the Hermits were getting dressed up and ready to head out. Why? They were idols. Not all of the Hermits in the house were but a good handful of them were. They had concerts every weekend night from 12am to 6am so that means they had to sleep during the day, which meant that they didn’t hear what happened until they woke up.

“Maybe I can slice his thro-”

“Alright stop it.” Iskall interrupted False, 

“I understand we all want to have a stab at Mumbo for what he did but no one is going to cause him harm.” Ren and Cub walked into the room. 

“Except for Grian. Once the man snaps out of it he’ll be on his knees, begging someone to kill him.” Scar spoke. 

“Right but no one’s going to kill him. Hopefully.” Cub said. Ren shook his head. 

“The only one that’s most likely going to kill Mumbo is Xisuma. As we all know, he is the one that gets the most overprotective of Grian.” Ren stated. The Hermits hummed in agreement. With a beep from Etho’s phone, he clapped his hands together. 

“Enough talk. Is everyone ready to go?” Etho asked. A few “yes”s were heard. Cleo took out her phone, scrolling through the list and beginning to call out names. 

“Scar!”

“Crystal.”

“Doc!”

“Here.”

“Iskall!”

“Present.” 

“Jevin!”

“...”

“JEVIN!?”

“I’ll be down in a second!”

“False! Stress!” 

“Here.” 

“Ditto.” 

“Tango!”

“Always here~” 

“Shut up.” Cleo warned. The group chuckled. Jevin slid down the stair railing and rushed over to the group. Tango chuckled and slapped his back.

“Alright ya fools! Get in the bus! We’re headin’ out!” Cleo yelled. With that, the idol Hermit’s all rushed out the front door and to the old school bus that was spray painted with cool neon light designs. Iskall stopped at the door and turned to Cub and Ren. 

“Can you keep me updated on them?” He asked. The two shared a look.

“I guess. Wasn’t up for doing night shifts but I’ll try.” Ren answered. Cub sighed. 

“I’ll be heading to bed.” Cub answered. Iskall bit his lip. 

“What about the others?” He asked. Ren shook his head. 

“All already asleep.” Ren reported. Cub stepped forward. 

“Look, Iskall, I know you're worried for them, we all are too, but they need some cooling down without everyone at their necks about it. Grian’s asleep and Mumbo is still working.” Cub said softly. Iskall looked down. 

“I know but-” 

“Green Slime boy! Get ya spoon butt on the bus!” Cleo yelled. Iskall snapped his head towards her, a worried look still on his face. He was hesitating about if he should go or not. Cub put a hand on the slime hybrid’s shoulder. Iskall looked down at the older. 

“Just go. We’ll keep an eye on them.” Cub said. Iskall nodded before sighing and rushing over to the bus. The scientist closed the heavy doors and looked over at Ren who only shook his head. 

“He’s like an over worried brother. We all know how Mumbo get’s with projects and we forgive the guy after he comes back to the floor.” Ren spoke. Cub walked back over to the red shirt man and said,

“Can you really blame him? Mumbo does rarely snap at Grian, when he does he usually quickly comes to his senses and apologizes as if Grian is dying in his hands. It worries me that Mumbo’s still even in this state.” Ren yawned. 

“I guess you're right. For now I guess we just-” The two stopped when they heard tired grunts and heavy footsteps walking down the hall. They turned their attention to the man who had just stepped out from the hallway and was making his way to the large staircase. 

“Mumbo?” Cub asked. The man stopped in his tracks and turned to them. He looked exhausted and terrible, like he might pass out any minute. He was covered in redstone and his hands looked bruised, not to mention the dark bags under his eyes. Some fingers had medical tape wrapped around them, done lazyly and quickly. His short, light brown hood cloak that he usually wore was tucked under his arm. From the looks of it, he looked calm and unnerved. 

Mumbo hummed as a tired response. Ren raised an eyebrow while Cub bit his lip and crossed his arms behind his back. 

“Whatcha doin’ there buddy?” Ren asked, his tone dropped a bit to one of confusion. Mumbo gave them a confused look. 

“What do you mean? I’m heading to bed.” Mumbo replied. Ren hummed and squinted his eyes at him, standing up straighter and crossing his arms. 

“Is that so? What happened to the machine?” Ren asked. Mumbo shrugged. 

“The weapon maker? No matter how much I tried to make it work it wouldn’t respond. I gave up on it.” Mumbo answered. Ren and Cub gave Mumbo a weird look.

“Anything else?” Cub asked. Mumbo shook his head.

“No. Anyways, I’m heading to bed. Goodnight.” With that, Mumbo headed up the stairs and down the hallway. Ren turned to Cub once Mumbo was out of sight. 

“He doesn’t _know_.” Ren said.

“He doesn’t _remember_.” Cub corrected. 

“Same difference.” Ren argued. Cub shook his head and Ren began to smirk.

“He _**so** _doesn’t know what’s about to hit him.” Cub shushed him.

“Quiet. Let’s leave it as it is.”

“ _Leave it as it is_!? Cub! If we tell him now we get to see his hilarious reaction!” 

“ **No**.” Cub firmly said,

“If we tell him now then we’ll also get in trouble.” 

“How would we even get in trouble? We’re just informing him.” Ren said, not caring.

“If we tell him now then he’ll wake up Grian which will only get Xisuma more upset, and with the stories that Doc has told us, I don’t want to be around to witness what happens when Xisuma is angry.” Ren sighed at this.

“I guess you're right…”

“I am unless you want to try and prove me wrong.”

“No... I don’t want to see Grian upset. I also don’t want to get killed either.”

“Then it’s concluded. Let's head to bed.” Cub said and Ren nodded. The two Hermits headed off to their rooms, getting ready for bed but also preparing for the loud lecture that a certain angry archangel would be giving the redstone mechanic tomorrow morning.


	3. Nightmares

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments and kudos! Because of procrastination I finished this one a bit early. Might as well post it. Enjoy!

Warning: 

**Graphic Depictions Of Violence**

**Cussing**

_ “Grian stop it.” Mumbo warned the avian hybrid in front of him who was poking at his redstone machine. Grian squeaked in response. _

_ “No, it's not helping. Go bother Iskall.” Mumbo suggested. Grian squeaked again. _

_ “Yes, I love you too but you're not-GRIAN!” Mumbo screamed at the little avian as he accidentally tripped on the bucket of water that was sitting next to the machine, used to wash off redstone from Mumbo’s hands. Grian quickly sat on his knees and looked to see what he had done. His eyes widened and he quickly turned to Mumbo, trying to quickly squeak out sorry’s but he felt himself freeze as he looked into his lover’s eyes. They were dark and cold, filled with hatred and frustration. Grian squeaked but was cut off by an angry Mumbo.  _

_ “NO!! SHUT UP!!” Mumbo yelled. Grian shrunk back and tried squeaking in response but Mumbo just yelled at him more.  _

_ “I SAID SHUT UP!? YOU’RE NOT SORRY!! Every time I’m trying to work on something, alone and not wanting anyone around me, YOU, you just HAVE TO come on by and “help me” with whatever I’m working on. LISTEN HERE YOU PIECE OF GARBAGE!!” Mumbo yelled as he stomped up to Grian who tried shrinking back against the floor. He was shaking - no - trembling beneath Mumbo. He’d never seen him so angry at him before. Infact, he’d never insulted him and yelled at him this way, ever. _

_ “I don’t need you. In fact, I don’t want you. You're annoying, useless and a waste of space!” Mumbo said. Grian tried to respond but froze completely when He felt Mumbo grab his throat and pin him to the ground.  _

_ “I said SHUT UP!!” Mumbo growled. Treats of terror began to leak down Grian’s face. This was….. No nonononono! It couldn’t be...right? This...this was all a joke and Mumbo would be snapping out of it anytime soon.... Right? Yeah. He just needed to call the others names. Yeah, then he’d snap out of it.  _

_ Grian went to open his mouth, to try and speak but let out a breathy yelp when the mustache man grabbed his jaw, squeezing it painfully.  _

_ “Xisuma should have left you in that hospital bed to ROT. Hm....Maybe….if I just,” Mumbo pulled Grian’s neck and jaw in different directions lightly and only a little bit,  _

_ “Maybe if I snap your neck you’ll shut up and never bother me again.” Mumbo said with a smirk. Grain shook and tried escaping the redstoner’s grip. When he saw no escape he did the one thing that would allow him to try and get free… he kicked Mumbo where the sun didn't shine. The redstoner let go of Grian while letting out a painful cry. Grian quickly scrambled away, tripping a bit but running away.  _

  
  


_. _

  
  
  
  


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_ But then he felt something grab him and stab his throat. He screamed in pain and he felt the blade move down, cutting open his throat more.  _

_ “I said….SHUT UP!!!”  _

  
  


“NAUGH! AH….ah…..” Grian woke up in distraught, cold sweat on his forehead. He was… he.... Grian let out a shaky sigh. Tears slid down his face while he hugged himself, trying to calm down his frantic breathing, bringing his legs up and resting his head on them. That’s right, in and out, in and out. In…….and out. It’s ok, everything is ok, he still has his throat and he’s fine. He wiped the tears away as they slowed down.

Grian brought one of his hands up to the scar on his throat, lightly touching it. It was still fine and intact. He took one more deep breath before letting out a long sigh. His large wings wrapped around him in a comforting way while he opened his eyes and looked down at his lap.

“ _It's ok. Mumbo...Mumbo isn’t going to hurt you.... But what if-_ ” Grian thought but stopped himself. He just curled up more.

“ _Don’t think about it….What time is it?_ ” Grian thought to himself. He uncurled a bit and glanced at the lit up alarm clock on his bedside table which read “3:28am”. Grian sighed and rubbed his eyes. He moved his wings back onto the bed, layed back down and began to stare up at the ceiling. The thoughts in his head turned gears and brought up more unsettling memories from earlier that day. 

_ “I fucking hate you! You're so useless! Why did I ever fall in love with a useless pet like you!?”  _

_ “You should have been sold at a pet store so they could train you to actually follow commands.” _

_ “Why do you always have to mess everything up!? Do you think that you're helping!? Because you're not!” _

_ “Just. Shut. Up! I don’t want to hear it!”  _

_ “You ruined it!? What the hell Grian!? You useless piece of shit!” _

_ “I said stop! Get out of my life!”  _

_ “I DON’T NEED YOU!!” _

Grian shivered as Mumbo’s harsh words rang in his head. He knew that Mumbo meant none of what he said, he knew that his love meant no harm, he knew well that Mumbo just got like this when he got stuck when working on big redstone projects…………. But why did it hurt so much? Maybe because Mumbo didn’t snap out of it like he usually would when he got angry with him. Maybe it's because Mumbo hadn’t come up to check up on him at all for all these long 17 hours since they fought. 

Grian turned over onto his side, his wings curled around him while he pulled his large, fluffy red blanket over his head. After a few minutes, tears began to gather back up in his eyes.

What if he did mean every harsh word he said? Maybe he was useless, maybe Mumbo was right...he didn’t need him. He was just a mute pet after all.

  
  
  
  
  
  


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He needed to stop this. He needed to stop beating himself up about small  _ useless  _ things. So what if the love of his life hated him? Why should he care? Well, it was because he never got the right chance to toughen up. Ever since his  **_own parents_ ** tore his mouth, neck and chest open, after they tore out his vocal cords, after he stumbled away to freedom after that horrible punishment, after he woke up in the hospital all fixed up, after he met Mumbo and Xisuma, after Xisuma brought him here...he’s never been allowed to leave. He’s never been allowed to adventure on his own, get his own job, learn to put his emotions aside and toughen up...leave the house in general. All this...gods he was a pure mess. He needed out, he needed to leave and he needed to leave now.

Grian looked up at his window, moonlight shining through. Maybe…


	4. Helpful Brother

Grian gave a content sigh as he flew through the night sky. This was definitely what he needed. The wind through his hair and wings, the moonlight above lighting his way and the cold breeze that captured his body in a light freeze. Just...the wind washing away his worries and pulling the weight off his shoulders felt nice. But even with the calm wind and atmosphere, he was still upset. Anyone could easily tell that he was just by looking at his wings, which were still large. Ever since the fight they hadn’t returned back to their normal small size. This made the avian feel a bit uneasy about it. Sure, having huge wings was cool and all but when they showed your emotions, it wasn’t very fun. Plus, Grian was the kind of hybrid that felt self conscious about his wing size. His small wings made him feel big but his large wings made him feel small. Not to mention the unsatisfying heavy feeling they gave. It just added more to his problems, made him more upset. It was like his wings were mocking him, reminding him of whatever he was upset about was most likely his fault and that he caused it. Before Grian could get lost in his thoughts more, a loud yell was heard below him. Quickly sounding like it was rushing towards him at a fast pace.

“Hello Grian!” Grian screeched in fear, losing his balance before quickly gaining it back and snapping towards the voice who had called for him. When Grian noticed who it was he screeched at them in anger. The person put their arms up in surrender.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you Grian! I should have approached you in a different way. I’m sorry!” The person said quickly, clearly guilty about what they just did. The person in front of Grain was none other than NPC Grian. He came from a completely different world so Grian himself didn’t build him but a different dimensional Grian did.

NPC Grian had a different name though. He went by Rusty and had a tendency to wear long sleeve shirts that had wood designs on them, he also wore red candy cane pajama bottoms constantly (saying that they were too soft for his own good), he had a red “X” earning on, his hair was more cherry blonde than Grian’s and his eyes were blue. He also didn’t usually wear any sort of skin cover up so his grey sparkly robot skin always showed.

Grian squeaked at Rusty who looked at him and chuckled nervously. A red glow seemed to start taking over the bottom of Rusty’s blue eyes. He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Why am I out here? N-no reason. I-I’m just out for a fly.” Rusty stuttered. Grian crossed his arms and raised a brow at him. Rusty’s eyes became red and he quickly looked away. This was Rusty’s way of blushing since it wasn’t able to show up on his tin face, sure it felt hot when he blushed but there was no sign of color change.

“We-we were playing a-a-u-um…. Zo-zoom got drunk and we-we started playing st-strip tru-truth or da-dare… I couldn’t handle it so I left, needed some fresh air even though I’m a, you know, robot.” Rusty stuttered out. Grian gave him a squeaky chuckle. Rusty sighed in defeat.

“Couldn’t handle Zoom’s hot body? Yes, I couldn’t handle Zoom’s hot naked body.... Changing the topic because I don’t wish to be on it anymore, why are you out here? Last I checked you weren’t allowed out of the Hermit house unless brother-in-law Xisuma was with you.” Rusty questioned. Rusty was married, yes, but he was married to Xisuma’s twin brother, Evil Xisuma, who goes by the name Zoom. He had a ruby ring on his ring finger to prove it. 

Grian looked at the robot and his face fell, he looked down at the lit up towns below them. Tears began to gather in his eyes as he squeaked out his explanation. Rusty’s eyes widened and turned back to their normal blue.

“Mumbo cussed at you and threatened you, he even slapped you and grabbed your throat. M-Mumbo did that to you? How-How dare he!” Rusty shouted and grabbed his twin's shoulders, 

“Why would he even do that to you!? I thought he loved you!?” Grian gave a shrug in response, the tears in his eyes now falling down his face. Rusty’s face turned to one of sympathy and hugged Grain.

“I’m so sorry little brother. Is there anything I can do?” He asked. Little brother? Yes. Grian was only 21 while Rusty was 25 and married. The old dimension that Grian came from was slower than the one Rusty came from so the age gap was a little odd. Usually Grian was the oldest but he wasn’t here. He was the youngest, or as the Hermits called him, the baby of the family. Grian hugged back and gave a weak squeak. 

“Stay with me? Of course!” Rusty leaned back a bit and looked into Grian’s caramel eyes.

“You can stay with me for as long as you need.” Rusty smiled at Grian. Grian gave a small smile back and nodded. Rusty brightened up but then jumped back, let go of Grian. 

“Oh! That’s right! You might need some sort of safe security! Here!” Rusty shoved his hands into his large pj pockets and then pulled out a red face mask. He handed it to Grian who carefully took it. 

“Usually when we meet, you have a mask on. I’m not sure why, probably to hide your scars on your mouth or feel safe, but I always carry one around just in case I ever end up running into moments like these. You always got to be prepared for any situation that may occur!” Rusty did a small solute to the younger who in return smiled a “thank you” and slipped the mask on.

“Would you like to head to my rustic house?” Rusty asked. Grian gave him an unsure look and gave a stuttered squeak.

“Isn’t Zoom still at your house, drunk and naked? Oh? Oh!" Rusty's eyes turned a soft pink at this.

"Don’t worry. Zoom is at the podcast studio with Grim, Jerry, Milo and Barneby. So my house is safe for the time being.” He reassured. Grian sighed and nodded, giving the older a little squeak. Rusty smiled and grabbed the others hand.

“You want to go to my house then? Well...Off to the rustic house of the rustics, then!” Rusty cheered and pulled Grian along who happily followed. Rusty’s rocket feet and Grian’s large wings helped the two quickly fly through the night sky.


	5. Realization

“YOU WHAT!?” X’s voice boomed throughout the mansion. 

Welcome to the Hermit mansion. The time is currently 8:10am. It’s been about an hour since the idol Hermits returned back home and all of them were desperate for some kind of rest but it seems like they wouldn’t be getting any rest any time soon. Same goes for the Hermits that were still sleeping who had just awakened to angry Xisuma's voice.

Currently, Xisuma was angry, no, he was furious as he glared down at Mumbo. The two were currently in Mumbo’s room with the mustache man sitting on his bed, half awake, and Xisuma, standing over Mumbo with his four wings stretched out all the way to make it seem like he was bigger and more powerful. The redstoner was frightened while the archangel was furious. If stares could kill, Mumbo would have been killed a thousand times over. 

“I-I-I-u-u-um-u-uh.” Mumbo stuttered out. All the words he wished to speak got caught in his throat. He couldn’t speak, it was clear that he couldn’t but that was no excuse to Xisuma. 

“What happened?” you ask. To put it short, it went a little something like this….

_ Mumbo awoke to a knock at his door. He glanced over at his clock. Why this early? Was it a mistake? Maybe. Mumbo hummed to himself, closing his eyes again to go back to sleep until he heard another knock.  _

_ “Who is it?” Mumbo tiredly called. His eyes snapped open when he heard a cold, dark voice say, _

_ “Open the door, Mumbo Jumbo.” What...was that? Mumbo looked at his door, his mind racing at who it could be. Why did they sound so angry? The real question was, who was it? Were they here to hurt him? Take his stuff? No they would have broken the door down already. Maybe it was Iskall. No, it couldn’t be, he hadn’t taken any of his things recently. It definitely wasn’t Grian because Grian couldn’t talk. It was too deep to be a girl’s voice, not saying that girls can’t have deep voices, but it wasn’t… it didn’t sound like any of the hermits. Who- _

_ “Mumbo, now.” The voice demanded. Mumbo quickly got up and stumbled to his bedroom door, tripping on his blanket that got tangled with his legs. He grabbed onto the door handle but hesitated for a second. He shoved his fear aside and opened the door. There, right in front of him, stood an angry Xisuma. A shadow lingered over his face which made the man in front of him appear more menacing. Mumbo gulped and stepped back, allowing Xisuma to enter into his room.  _

_ “M-May I help yo-you X?” Mumbo stuttered. Oh gods, what has he done this time? X walked over to Mumbo’s room window. He looked out, at the forest that surrounded the house before saying,  _

_ “Yes. You may. Sit down on the bed.” X ordered. Mumbo hesitantly did as told and sat down on his bed. He cupped his hands together and sat them in his lap, nervous about what his leader needed from him this early in the morning. _

_ “Can we talk about what happened yesterday? Your machine and Grian?” Xisuma asked, not moving from the window but his gaze did drift over to the mustache man. _

_ “Sure but I don’t-wait, what about Grian?” Mumbo asked. X raised a brow. _

_ “Are we playing or are you serious? Grian got hurt, threatened and yelled at...by you.” X explained. Mumbo’s eyes went wide.  _

_ “I….are you sure? I-I don’t recall doing such a thing to him. I’d never hurt Grian!” Mumbo spoke in fear, he couldn’t have hurt his love. He’d never do something like that to Grian...But then a small memory hit him, making his eyes widen and body stiffen. He spoke out loud about the accident of what he remembered.  _

_ “I tried to choke him and silence him by force…” Mumbo muttered. This caused Xisuma’s eyes to widen and next thing Mumbo knew was that his leader was towering over him, wings spread out and gaze filled with hate. _

_ “YOU WHAT!?” He screamed. _

That brings us back to the present. Luckly, after a few moments of staring and silence, Mumbo was able to find his voice again. 

“I-I swear on my life, Xisuma! I don’t mean to hurt him! I-”

“Then why did you do it!? Huh!? You know,” X jabbed his finger into Mumbo’s chest,

“You know very well how Grian gets when he’s told to shut up, you know very well how he gets when someone touches his neck.” Xisuma growled at him. 

“Y-You know how I get when I’m dealing with redstone! I become a whole 'nother person that I can’t control. I didn’t mean to!” Mumbo tried to argue, tears forming in his eyes, knowing that he’d most likely hurt Grian bad since X was talking him down so harshly. It even hurt that he’d just found out that he had hurt Grian yesterday. Why didn’t anyone tell him or try to snap him out of it!?

“Then why didn’t you snap out of it!?” X yelled, his archangel eyes opening, all six glaring down at Mumbo.

“I don’t know!? Usually I snap out of it when I yell at Grian!”

“That’s not an excuse!”

“Well it's the only one I have! I don’t know what goes on until I come back to my senses, X! It wasn’t my fault!” 

“Well it clearly was! Your body, your mindset!”

“Well I’m SORRY that I can’t control it!” 

“Learn to then!” 

“I’ve tried!” 

“Stop trying and just do it!”

“I. Can’t.”

“Yes you can!” 

“Shut up!” 

“No you!”

“I have a right to speak my mind!”

“Well you sure did act on it yesterday!”

“I-that wasn’t me!”

“Then who was it!? HUH!?”

“I-I…”

“Exactly!” 

“It wasn’t my fault!”

“Yes it was!”

“If it was then let me go see Grian!”

“NO!” Xisuma grabbed Mumbo’s shoulders and pinned him down onto the bed. His hands were glowing, threatening to disintegrate the engineer's shoulders at any point.

“YOU LISTEN TO ME!! You're outta your god’s damn mind! In control or not, NO ONE SHOULD EVER HURT GRIAN!! And what you did...left a large scar on not only his heart but his memory too.” Xisuma yelled. Mumbo’s eyes were wide, full of fear, regret, sadness and anger. Tears ran down not just his face but Xisuma’s too. 

The Hermits had a tendency to get hurt often. Break a few bones, earn a few scars and maybe even a few painful memories. They all got through it no matter what but they always did it together. They also help one another with their dark pasts. Sure, every Hermit had their own dark past and dark secrets but to all their knowledge, Grian’s was the worst. Getting his voice taken away just because he was a talkative 7 year old...that wasn’t right at all. It was down right horrible. Sure, Mumbo lost his legs to a piston accident, Scar had a curse that gave him bad luck which caused him to earn scars easily, Doc use to be a creeper until he was painfully turned into what he is now and Xisuma was betrayed by everyone he loved and banished here...it wasn’t as bad as what Grain was forced to go though. Every Hermit had grown up with a somewhat good lifestyle and only when they got older was when they faced something bad that had caused them to ended up here, Grian was the only one known in the Hermit household to have faced something bad when he was just a kid that caused him to end up here, not a young adult like every other Hermit. Grian didn't deserve it. He didn’t deserve any sort of punishment put upon him. 

All the Hermits just wanted to give Grian a new and happy life to live, help him in any way they could. They were so protective of him because none of them wanted to see the little avian get hurt and suffer again. So when someone snapped at Grian, it was always an emotional rollercoaster, especially for Xisuma who not only had his father and son bond with Grian, he had a fearing scar on his memories about fear of being abandoned again. He just didn’t want Grian to ever think that his family was betraying him or going against him in any way. It had happened to him once, Xisuma was determined to make sure it would never happen to him again. And what Mumbo did… caused a scar of pain and fear for little Grian. Fear that he would get hurt again, fear that maybe Mumbo wanted him hurt, fear that Mumbo would do the same thing his parents had done to him. 

And with that, Mumbo came to a shattering truth of what he had done to Grian. Full realization crashing down on him like a wave. Now remembering every second of what he had done. At first he just layed there, under Xisuma’s grip, just staring up into his leader’s many eyes with a blank look. Then, like a rock hitting a glass mirror, Mumbo burst into tears. He sobbed. He yelled out his pains in a watery sob, sounding like he’d just been murdered which caused all the Hermits in the house to jolt in fear. Mumbo sobbed out his apologies, apologizing as best as he could through he's choking sobs. Xisuma’s gaze softened. He pulled Mumbo up into a hug and the two sat like that for who knows how long, X softly crying into Mumbo’s shoulder while Mumbo himself let out loud wails and cries of pain, not physical pain but mental, along with apologies. The two were too caught up in the moment to realize that the bedroom door was opened wide, all the Hermits watching the scene unfold in front of them. Iskall was the first to step forward, the sad atmosphere caused him to start crying as well. He walked over to the two and joined in on the hug, and one by one, so did the other Hermits. All whispering love and kindful comments to Mumbo and Xisuma, trying to calm the two down. After what felt like hours later, Mumbo and X had finally calmed down. Mumbo apologized over and over still while X reassured him that it was ok and that it was his fault for snapping and all. The group moved back, everyone giving each other space while Mumbo wiped the remaining tears from his eyes, sniffling and blowing his nose into some tissues that Iskall had handed him. A few deep breaths later and some more apologizing, Mumbo asked,

“M-May I see Grian?” X and Iskall gave each other an unsure look while Doc spoke up from behind X. 

“I don’t mean to interrupt but wouldn't have Grian joined in on this hours ago?” Doc asked. Iskall gave him a weird look. 

“Doc’s right. Grian isn’t the kind of person to sit back and listen to people just cry. Especially if it's Mumbo.” Scar said. Mumbo felt like his soul just dropped from his body, immediately fearing the worst. Grian...did he really hurt him that badly? Oh no. Oh gods. If he did then...shit. Grian was never going to forgive him. He probably never wants to see Mumbo's face ever again. Maybe he should move out? That would make up for the pain he'd caused Grian. If the avian wanted, then Mumbo would never talk to him again, face the punishments of the pains he'd caused.

“You-you are right. I know you hurt him bad Mumbo but hearing how loud you were and how meaningful you meant every apology, Grian would have been in here way before any of us.” Iskall said. Everyone’s expressions turned to ones of genuine fear. All now scared for the missing Hermit, Mumbo was the first one to respond, jumping to his feet and rushing out of his room and down the hall to Grian’s room. X soon followed him along with Iskall and everyone else. Upon arriving at Grian’s room and entering slowly with a call of the avian’s name, Mumbo was met with a horrible sight. 

“G-Grian…” Mumbo stuttered in fear, carefully stepping into the room more and looking around. As he looked around, calling out Grian’s name and moving things around frantically, he became more and more scared. Iskall and Xisuma watched, their eyes met a horrified Mumbo’s. The two words that fell out of Mumbo’s mouth next sent a surge of chaos throughout the house. 

“He’s gone.”


End file.
